My New Dog

[auntysocial]

I adopted Buddy from a shelter last week. He is a 65 pound shepherd mix who is supposed to be about 5 years old. We picked him because the shelter told us he had lived with a cat, and we needed a dog who would be OK with ours. We were told that he lived in the backyard at his previous home, and didn't get enough socialization and training. I

Comments

[heartsongforgod]

Great for you adopting a shelter dog. With the mouthing, yelp anytime it is unacceptable even if it's not hard at all. As soon as you feel teeth touch skin or clothes, yelp and end the play time. Get up and walk away. Once he has settled down completely, you can start playing again.

I think a lot will come with time. Don't expect too much out of him right now, but you can keep trying different things to see what interests him. I have a dog that doesn't like dog toys much but will go crazy over just about any cat toy - track balls, little toys on a string, anything with catnip, haha.

With playing fetch, don't take the toy away from him. Instead have loads of balls and toys to play with. Trade instead. When he gets ahold of the toy you threw, show him that you have a different toy. Encourage him to bring back the toy he has, but at first if he just drops it where he is, that's fine too. When he comes back to you, with or without his toy, throw the new one. You become the source of new toys but are never a threat of taking away the one he has. If he doesn't even chase the toy or ball, he may not be settled enough to play or he may not like that particular toy. Give it time and try out lots of different things.